Things About Arthur
by Hetanna
Summary: Arthur is alone on Valentines day and goes out for a walk to distract himself. He doesn't expect to run into just who he would have wanted to spend the day with... Really short USUK thing, wrote it ages ago... Human names used!


Three things about Arthur.

Number one: he was a gentleman, through and through. Opening doors for those who seemed to wish to use them; standing when a lady decided to make her leave... These were things that had become second nature to him over the centuries. Number two: although he was a gentleman, he was terribly, horribly, _sickeningly _tsundere. No other word could describe his demeanour-he could have passed for the very king of the concept should he have wished to.

Number three... The two of those things combined made him difficult to handle as a person and difficult to predict even if one got close. And that meant that he was always-without a doubt-alone on Valentine's Day.

Arthur mumbled hoarsely to himself as he flipped through the channels on the TV, the wonderful English weather putting on a water show outside, although he had become to accustomed to such that it hadn't even occurred to him that he should have gotten the washing off the line. His eyes were fixed on the blurry screen of the set he hadn't bothered to replace in a good thirty years, but no matter how much his eyes seemed it, he wasn't focused on it at all. No-it had all become a blur to him. On every channel there was something to do with bloody Saint Valentine, overpriced chocolates or the constant repeating of two names, over and over on the same old cheesy films that everybody in existance had watched a million time before.

Eventually he had had enough of it, and threw the remote across the room, smirking to himself half-heartedly as it flew over and hit the power button on the TV hard enough to turn it off. _Just as well. Couldn't be bothered to get up and do it myself_. He turned over on the couch and sighed, a haze of emotions in his head. But he most _certainly _was not jealous of all that was going on. No chance. No way.

Well... Maybe just a little bit.

With a sudden surge of frustration, Arthur forced himself from the couch and decided to make use of the melancholy day. There had to be some paperwork or something he could be getting on with.

Opened the door to his study. Immaculate. Nothing to do there.

_Fine, then. Plan B. Water the garden._

Opened the back door. Only just realised it was raining. Facepalmed.

He growled to himself as he slowly retreated from the downpour. But there was no way he was just going to grovel in his self-pity. Perhaps getting away from the house would help-after all, if it was raining, nobody would want to go on a date outside. He'd be free to do what he wanted without constantly having to be faced with the echo of, "I wuv you so much my widdle cuddly wuddly!"

So he made his way through the house to the old wooden front door, glanced at the umbrella holder, turned his nose up at it-_I'm an English gentleman, after all_-and made his way out into the rain.

Arthur walked for about half an hour. Just as he'd predicted, there wasn't a soul in sight that day. Not outside, at least-he'd taken a sneaky peak through a few residential windows here and there, and had seen far too many locked lips for one day. It was after the last repeat of that scene when he decided to keep his head down. Head into town. Do some window shopping. Yeah, that'd work. To keep his mind off things.

Another half an hour or so passed, and it seemed to be working. Until he stopped at one shop window. Of course they'd have Valentine's Day products on display. Of course. Why hadn't he realised that before he set out? He sighed, leaning against the window in disgust at himself for having so little common sense. He wasn't usually so incredibly scatterbrained...

Then the rain stopped. In surprise at the sudden cease of water pounding against his head, he looked up. But he still saw water flowing down in front of him.

Then he realised it hadn't stopped at all. There was a tall figure beside him, a serious look on his face, his glasses shining faintly against the sun's incredibly dim light, and his right arm outstretched, holding a black umbrella over his head.

"You can be stupid sometimes, Arthur," Alfred sighed, "You're supposed to be the one who tells me to get out of the rain, lest I catch cold."

Arthur scoffed. "Shut it," he said firmly, "My business is not yours, so stay out."

"Fine."

The umbrella was removed, and instead a red jacket, black buttons making their way up toward a wide collar, was placed over Arthur's shoulders.

"I bought that about an hour ago. Thought it might have matched my own attire, but since you're being stubborn as hell I might as well give it to you."

"For God's sake..." Arthur mumbled, fitting the jacket over his body, "...Happy, now?"

"Maybe," Alfred said, "Although my business with you still doesn't quite seem to be complete."

"...What?"

Alfred smiled as he lifted his other hand, a bouquet of flowers-varying shades of red and pink piled into a wrap of pale peach-clenched between his fingers.

"You've been alone for too long, Arthur. You didn't think I'd let this year go by another lonely one, did you?"

Arthur's cheeks flushed pink. Must just have been the light reflecting off the blossoms. Then Alfred took a step forward, ditched the umbrella and pulled Arthur close to him. Arthur mentally admitted he was wrong.

"I might not be the one you want to spend Valentine's Day with..." Alfred breathed, before continuing, "...but if not me, then whom?"

Arthur's liquid peridots blinked twice. That is, liquid only because of the rain. He certainly wasn't tearing up or anything.

He couldn't quite explain why his body simply wouldn't let go of this tall, handsome man before him, though.

Alfred allowed his arms to curl around Arthur's body, the flowers still firm in his hand. He certainly hadn't predicted that all of this was going to fall so easily into place. But then he smiled. Arthur Kirkland was a tsundere, it was true, but still a gentleman. His heart was ultimately in the right place, and after its wall had been melted down, his very being would revert to willingness, obediance and acceptance.

Alfred knew all three things about Arthur. And that was what allowed him so close to his prize.


End file.
